Campbell Foundation Top HIV/AIDS Philanthropic Funder in 2012
Some good news after the sunshine state comes right before 2014: its very own Campbell Foundation is the only Florida group on a list of the 69 top philanthropic funders for HIV/AIDS in the country.
The report comes by way of Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA), a 26-year-old watchdog organization whose mission is basically to ensure enough money makes its way to the research of and active AIDS eradication. It’s called “Global Philanthropic Support to Address HIV/AIDS in 2012,” and lists the top 69 philanthropic groups that supported HIV/AIDS in 2012. On the entire list, Fort Lauderdale’s Campbell Foundation made the 56th spot, clocking in at $451,656. The report also listed the commitments each group made, Campbell’s listed as $0.
The top 69 groups disbursed a total of $459,093,915, almost $10 million more than the combined commitments of $450,319,994 that these groups made. Going past these first 69, the report lists the groups from 70th place to 209th place disbursed a total of $7,982,258.
While these numbers may seem impressive overall, the report shows that total funding by the groups it had surveyed in 2011 and then in 2012 went down by three percent, or about $15 million. For an example, Washington State’s Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation disbursed $238 million in 2011 and then $220 million in 2012, an $18 million drop.
Another part of the survey asked participating groups to predict what would happen to disbursements in 2013. This is where the information gets the most pessimistic. Only ten percent of the respondents expected disbursements to go up. Forty-seven percent expected the amount to stay the same and 22 percent expected it to decrease. Twenty-one percent were unsure about what would happen.
As for Campbell Foundation, Florida’s only representation on the list (the top ten groups represented Washington, New York, Illinois, California, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Massachusetts), its 2012 funds paid for:
- Pediatric studies to prevent the transference of HIV from nursing mothers to newborn children
- To study how human enzymes encoded with a particular gene may play a role in anti-viral immunity
- The treatment of a stigmatizing rash seen on HIV patients
- The effects of steroids, nutrition and exercise on HIV positive males
- The use of herbs to reduce the viral load in HIV patients
- The use of acupuncture for pain relief in HIV patients
- Various novel anti-HIV medication therapies
"We are thrilled to count ourselves among the top funders in the U.S.," said Campbell Foundation program officer Ken Rapkin. "We are constantly striving to find new ways to raise money and awareness toward the goal of eradicating HIV/AIDS in our lifetime."
For more information about the Campbell Foundation, go to campbellfoundation.org.
